The Colony Knights defeated South Anchorage Wolverines 5-4 in 3 OT during the First National Cup state hockey championship at the Menard Center in Wasilla on Thursday, Feb. 8, 2018. (Bill Roth / ADN)

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WASILLA — Knights are supposed to slay dragons, and that's just what the Colony Knights did Thursday at the First National Cup state hockey tournament.

The Knights scored in the third overtime period to take down the highly regarded South Wolverines 5-4 in first-round action at the Menard Sports Center.

Cooper Smith scored the game-winner with a little more than six minutes left in the third OT to send South to its second loss in 25 games this season.

"Slaying the dragon right off the bat," Smith said.

Two of the four first-round games were decided in overtime, and in both instances it was a Valley team prevailing over an Anchorage team. In the late game, Wasilla rallied to beat Service 4-3 less than four minutes into OT.

In the tournament's first two games, Dimond and West collected wins in opposite fashion. Dimond used third-period heroics to gut out a 4-3 win over West Valley, and West jumped on Juneau early in a 6-1 triumph.

South and Colony were tied 4-4 after 45 minutes of regulation play, and they played nearly 18 minutes in overtime before Smith ended it.

South outshot Colony 40-23 for the game and 9-2 in the first two eight-minute overtime periods, but the Knights took the shot that mattered the most. Foster Riekena, who scored Colony's first goal, got the assist on Smith's game-winner.

"It was a major grind at the end," Smith said. "I knew they were tired, and we were tired, but I was pretty confident that we were gonna win it."

Smith scored twice for the Knights, whose other goals came from Riekena, Alexander Fike and Dane Jellich. JJ Fabeck scored twice for South, which also got goals from Sam Jemmings and Dylan Jones.

Goaltender Cole Doss made 36 saves for Colony, and Zane Alexander and Alex Pavia combined for 18 saves for the Wolverines.

With the score tied 3-3, Anaruk carried the puck up the boards. The sophomore was supposed to fire the puck in the zone after the Lynx managed to get it from a sustained West Valley push.

He instead resisted the easy play and made two defenders miss. He launched a shot from the top of the circle and after being partially blocked, the puck trickled in.

"We've been trying to get him to chip the puck in deep all year," said Dimond coach Dennis Sorenson. "I looked away because I thought that's what he did … I heard it was a nice goal."

Anaruk could hardly contain himself. But he knew six minutes remained on the clock.

"It was amazing. I can't explain it," he said. "I told the boys we need to keep it going, get another one."

Only one grade-A scoring chance was mustered by West Valley following Anaruk's goal. Jaren Beckley's shot nicked off the top of Dimond goalie Hunter Kattness' glove. The puck got behind him, but skipped just wide.

West Valley outshot Dimond 34-22 and held leads of 1-0 and 3-2 — both courtesy of Anton Ruppert goals.

The Lynx tied the game 3-3 with two minutes left in the second period when Dawson Thompson hammered a shot from just inside the blue line. The rebound kicked out to Teague Porter for a tap-in.

"You know I think we got lucky tonight," Sorenson said. "Pretty happy to get lucky … but we came out in the end."

West 6, Juneau 1

West used a flurry of first-period goals to skate to a 6-1 victory against Juneau in the day's first game.

The Eagles outshot the Crimson Bears 41-16, with a 17-2 edge in the opening stanza.